Alia Bhatt, Sonam Kapoor and Anushka Sharma disagreed with the notion that rape or molestation scenes in films are shot technically and have said that portraying such scenes on screen is extremely traumatising for them. These ladies who have given applause-worthy performances in 2016 with their roles in Udta Punjab, Sultan and Neerja respectively were part of a roundtable conversation with Rajeev Masand.

Anushka said she went into depression when she was filming NH10. “I was in depression when I did the scene of being molested in NH10. But at that time, you want it to be real. Especially in films like NH10 where you do not know where the camera is, you have to make it look realistic. That time I was fine but I was emotionally very low for the next two days… Being punched, kicked in stomach and all that, I was just thinking how humans can be this way. We aren’t exposed to so much in life other than reading in newspaper. But to shoot such scenes are extremely traumatising.”

Agreeing with Anushka, Alia shared her experience when she was shooting for the gang-rape scene in Udta Punjab. “Actually, technically speaking it was never ever graphic. But I remember, while shooting the rape scene (for Udta Punjab), on set you want to be like technical about it. ‘Han you come here, then this happens, then we’ll do that and I’ll scream and…’ So the face is all ‘Yeah, I’m with it, I’m okay with it because I’m acting’. But actually what’s happening inside is ‘I want this scene to get over. I just want this whole thing to get over.”

She added that usually she is extremely excited to shoot for the film but for the first time, she feared to go on the set. “This has never happened to me but I used to dread that walk every day while getting out of my room and I used to love the walk every day when I’d be coming back to my room. Even though I love my work, it was weird to be in such a situation but what was even more weird was to pretend to be cool on set.”

Sonam Kapoor, who was lauded for her performance in Neerja, agreed and shared a shocking incident of her life. The actor, who calls a spade a spade, shared how she was molested when she was a 14-year-old kid. “Everybody goes through some sort of sexual abuse in their childhood. I know I have been molested when I was younger and it was traumatising. I didn’t speak about it for two years or three years. I remember the incident so clearly,” she said.

Throwing some more light on the issue, the actor shared, “There was a man who came from behind and just held my breasts like that. And obviously, I didn’t have breasts at that time. I started shaking and shivering and I didn’t know what was going on and I started crying right there. I didn’t speak about it. I just sat there and I finished watching the film because I felt that I’d done something wrong for the longest time,” she said.